This invention relates generally to ultrasonic inspection of composite assemblies and more specifically, to methods and systems for inspection of composite assemblies that may include cavities.
More and more structures are fabricated utilizing composite materials. For example, airframes currently being developed incorporate more composite parts than previous airframes. However, utilization of more composite parts results in additional requirements for ultrasonic inspection to provide information with regard to the integrity of these additional composite parts.
Most facilities that fabricate composite materials, and thus composite parts, have limited capabilities for providing a fast, thorough ultrasonic inspection of these composite parts. One example of such a composite part is a movable trailing edge wing component. Traditionally, such a part was fabricated from metallic materials. In new generation aircraft, this component will be fabricated from composite material. As such, ultrasonic inspection will need to be utilized for this component, and the information provided by such an ultrasonic inspection will be utilized in the manufacturing process. Specifically, the ultrasonic inspection information will be utilized in adjusting the manufacturing process to ensure that quality parts are being produced for such an airframe component.
At least some composite components will be fabricated to include deep recessed cavities, for example, up to 30 inches deep. These cavities limit current ultrasonic technologies from performing a fast and thorough inspection. While computer controlled, gantry based, ultrasonic inspection systems are known to exist, for many inspection applications, such systems are prohibitively expensive to implement, and may not include flexibility for the inspection of many different composite assemblies.